Elementals

Under the Water - Brook

If you had told me a few weeks ago that my summer was going to go this wrong, I would've never left my room. I would've stayed under the covers reading Harry Potter, thinking that nothing in those books could ever happen in real life. But if I had done that, then I would've been wrong. Oh, so wrong. Thinking back however, I really wish I had done that. I wish that I thought that those types of adventures only existed in stories. Then maybe this whole thing would've never happened. Maybe my life would be normal.
It all started out so normal. I was laying face down on the hammock in the backyard. Actually, it was less of a backyard and more of a wood. The hammock was tied between two trees a few feet in. We didn't actually own the woods but we were the only house in our area so there was really no one to tell us to stay out of it. My mom did anyway because she wasn't the outdoorsy type. Why she bought a house in the woods I'll never know. Luckily my best friend Mira did like the woods so she hung out with me most days. Right now she's was standing about a foot away, leaning on one of the nearby trees. At least I thought she was until the hammock flipped over. I ended up laying on my back on the ground staring at the leaves of the trees an a daze. It took me a second to realize that my blond best friend was now sitting on the hammock laughing.
"Was that really necessary?" I asked her, pushing myself up off the ground. She shrugged.
"Hey, you wanna go get ice cream?" she asked.
"What is it with you and ice cream?" I asked. "We just went yesterday!"
"But it's hot!" she wined.
"But we're broke!" I said, copying her tone.
"Details," she said. I laughed.
"But we do have a freshwater river running through these woods," I told her. "We can follow it to the pond and cool off."
"But that takes effort," she wined.
"Do you do anything besides wine?" I asked her.
"Nope!" she said, laying back on the hammock.
"Come on," I said. I stood up and grabbed her wrist before pulling her off of the hammock. She yelped and hit the ground with a thud.
"Fine, I'm coming," she said and then stood up. I smirked and then headed deeper into the woods in the direction of the river.
"Keep up slow poke!" I yelled behind me as I darted through the the trees.
"You slow down!" Mira called from somewhere behind me. "I don't exactly know where I'm going!" I rolled my eyes and then skidded to a stop in front of the river while I waited for her to catch up. "Geze!" she said when she finally appeared. "Did you really need to go that fast?"
"Did you really need to knock me out of that hammock?" I asked.
"Touché," she said.
"Come on," I said. We walked along the river for a while. After a while Mira forgot her ice cream craving and instead started cartwheeling along the bank. I laughed at first and then copied her. Unfortunately, because we were too busy paying attention to our hands were going, we stopped paying attention to our feet and they ended up in the pond. Mira and I immediately jerked upwards, trying to stable ourselves. Mira was successful but I couldn't regain my balance and ended up falling into the water. I was splashing wildly, trying to pull myself back up when I felt a hand close around mine. Then I was pulled upwards, out of the water. When I resurfaced I found my footing and spit water out of my mouth. Then I pushed aside my hair, that was now plastered to my face, and wiped my eyes so that I could see. Unfortunately, the first thing I saw was Mira doubled over laughing.
"What are you laughing at?" I asked. "Your pants are soaked!"
"And your hair's a mess!" she said, still laughing.
"We were gonna jump in anyway," I told her as I stepped back onto dry land.
"Yeah but that was awesome!" I she said, having finally stopped laughing.
"Oh yeah?" I asked. "Let's see how you like it." Then I pushed her in and she fell into the water with a splash. Then I laughed and reached in to pull her out but instead found myself submerged in the water again. When I popped back up I splashed water at Mira and she retaliated. It kept on going for a good 10 minutes. We were laughing the whole time despite being soaked to the bone with water. When we finally tired out Mira and I dragged ourselves to the bank and lay on the rocky dirt ground breathing heavily.
"Well, I'm not bored anymore!" Mira said, panting heavily.
"I don't think I'll ever be dry again," I told her between gulps of air. We didn't say anything else for a few second while we lay there panting like dogs. "Why did we think this was a good idea again?" I asked after I caught my breath.
"We're nuts," Mira said. I saw her pushing herself upwards out of the corner of my eye and I followed suit. I took one look at her and then burst out laughing. Her long blonde hair was plastered to her neck and face and her pink T-shirt was so full of water that it looked like it had grown in size. The only dry part of her outfit was her green army jacket which she had removed before going in the water. I wasn't surprised when she started laughing too. I'm sure I didn't look much better.
"We should probably get back," I told her after calming down. "My mom will want me back for dinner. You staying?"
"Nah," she said, "my mom's making meatloaf and I don't want to miss that. But I'll be back first thing tomorrow."
"I love summer," I said. Then we linked arms and skipped back into the forest while giggling like we were in elementary school again. We parted ways back at my house and I stood at the door in my soaking wet clothing watching her get on her bike and pedal away. I hoped that she would have a good explanation for her parents as to why she was wet but there wasn't much she could do anyway. I turned and walked into the house as Mira disappeared into the distance.
"Mom! I'm back!" I called.
"We're in here!" A voice called, only it wasn't my mothers.
"Ally?" I asked.
"Yeah!" my sister called back. My face lit up and I ran into the kitchen only to slip on my wet socks and crash into the counter.
"Woah!" I called as I went down.
"Brook!" Ally called as she went to help me up. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah," I said, "I'm fine."
"Good," she said.
"What are you-" I tried to ask but my mom cut me off.
"Why are you all wet!" my mom exclaimed.
"Oh, Mira and I jumped in the pond," I told her.
"What!" she screeched. "Why would you do that?"
"It was cheaper than ice cream," I shrugged. Ally laughed.
"Go get changed! Right now," my mom yelled and pointed up the stairs. My sister shot me a sympathetic look as I trudged upstairs. My mom was ok most of the time but there were times when she would get mad at me for every little thing. My sister visiting from Yale was one of them.
I sighed and quickly changed out of my wet clothes before heading back downstairs for dinner. My mom didn't say a word to me, instead directing all of her questions at Ally which I was fine with. I found out that Ally was down here doing research on strange phenomena in the natural progression of the area. Something about there being winds faster than should be possible and fires starting and stopping without a scientific cause. I wasn't really sure because she was using science words that I didn't understand. I was more of an and arts and math student. Strange combination I know. Still, I didn't think that I was alone. My mom had on her I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about-but-I'm-going-to-pretend-like-I-do smile. Neither of us said anything though because she looked so animated and excited.
When she finally shut up, which took another 10 minutes, my mom sent me up to bed so she and Ally could talk. I didn't mind going to bed early. If dreaming were an Olympic sport then I would take the Bronze, Silver and Gold. So I quickly slipped into my nightgown and collapsed in my bed. My damp hair laying wildly on the mattress as I drifted off to sleep.
When I woke up the next morning my hair was a nightmare. No matter how many times I ran my brush through it, my hair remained a frizzy mess. So, instead I grabbed a hair tie and pulled my hair back into a ponytail. Which was a feat because my wavy blonde hair only reached my neck with its blue tips. I didn't bother with makeup, I never did, and quickly threw on a T-shirt and shorts. Then I ran downstairs to meet Mira. I yelled a quick goodbye to my mom on my way out the door and waved to Ally. She gave me a distracted wave back and then resumed typing on her laptop. Then I grabbed my jacket, which was hanging by the door, and hopped out the door. When I got outside, I saw Mira leaning on her bike.
"Wow," I said, "you weren't kidding about coming here first thing hu?"
"Anything to get away from my annoying brothers," Mira said shrugging. "You're lucky that it's just you, your mom and Ally."
"Would be better if I had a father," I said quietly.
"Right, sorry," she said, blushing.
"It's cool," I replied. I really wasn't mad at her, if anyone else had said that I might be but I know she wasn't trying to make me feel bad.
"Hey," Mira said, "we should go down to the pond again. You can bring your sketch pad!" I thought about it for a second.
"I'll go but I won't jump in. My mom would kill me if I came home wet again," I told her.
"Fine," she replied. "But I'm serious about that sketch book. It's so amazing! I wish I'd thought to bring my camera. My phone won't do it justice."
"Alright," I said. Then I cracked the door open and reached my hand in, grabbing my bag containing my sketch bag and pencils. "Let's go."
She smiled and then turned and took off running. I wasn't far behind her. This time it was me who had to keep up as we dashed through the trees. She seemed to remember where it was pretty well. She had a very selective mind when it came to remembering things like that. She could remember every flavor of ice cream at the parlor but she had a hard time remembering the name of our history teacher that we had for all of middle school. Basically, if it wasn't interesting, she wasn't interested.
When we arrived back at the pond. Mira wasted no time in jumping in. She literally took off her jacket and threw it to dry land as she was jumping into the water. It ended up hitting me in the face. I glared at her when I saw her face pop back out of the water. She just laughed and dove back under the water. I tossed the jacket aside and pulled out my sketch book. It was hard to draw the landscape with Mira moving all around the water so instead I focused on Mira herself. I drew the lake and then I drew sketches of Mira in different poses in the water with one solid drawing in the center. I was working on filling in the center drawing when I noticed the silence. I had grown used the the sound of Mira splashing around in the water so I looked up to see if she had gotten out but I couldn't see her on the bank. Actually I couldn't see her anywhere.
"Mira?" I called out worriedly. "Mira!" I put my sketch book on the ground next to me and stood up in a panic. "Mira!" I called again. When I didn't get a response I launched forwards to the edge of the water. I couldn't see her anywhere. Then I noticed movement near the deepest part if the pond. I immediately jumped into the water and swam towards the center. Then I held my breath and dunked under the water. I searched around frantically for my best friend when all of a sudden she appeared right in front of me. I jerked backwards and Mira made a face like she was laughing and then kicked to the surface. My eyebrows knit to a frown as I kicked up after her.
"That was NOT funny!" I exclaimed while she laughed.
"Yes, it really was!" she said.
"I thought you drowned or something!" I screamed and then bopped her on the head.
"Chill, I'm fine," she said. "I was just trying to get you in the water and give you an excuse to tell your mom."
"You could've just told me what to say instead of letting my think my best friend was dead!" I exclaimed flustered.
"Hindsight is 20-20," she said, "but now that you're in here-" she broke off and shoved me down under the water. I sputtered and swam back upwards.
"Really?" I asked. She shrugged.
"Hey," she said excitedly, "can you do this?" she asked and then dunked under the water and doing and underwater flip. Actually, it was more of a somersault but it was still cool.
"I can try," I said when she came up. Then I dunked my head under and tried to copy her movement but about halfway through I twisted in the water and was scrambling to get my head to the surface.
"Woah!" Mira exclaimed when I came up. "You ok?"
"Yeah," I said breathing heavily. "I don't think I did it right though."
She laughed. "No kidding," she said, "Maybe we can save that for some other time."
"But now I'm interested!" I wined.
"Yeah, and I wine," Mira said, rolling her eyes. "I'm gonna get out now though. I don't want to be quite as wet when I get home."
"What?" I asked. "You literally just faked drowning to get me in here." She shrugged again before swimming the the bank and pulling herself out.
"I'm gonna try that flip one more time!" I called through cupped hands. She gave me the thumbs up. I thought that my problem last time was the lack of momentum so I threw myself forwards into the water with even more force. Unfortunately it worked a little too well. I went down so hard that my head hit the bottom of the pond and when I tried to flip back upwards my hair the got caught on something.
I tried to jerk my head free but it wouldn't budge. I started to panick. I was jerking around wildly trying to free my hair but I was getting nowhere and running low on air. My instinct was to call for help but that would only make things worse. Not that it could get much worse. That's when I started feeling light headed. I stopped struggling and my eyes started to close. All I saw were flashes between darkness and the murky water. Then I saw something else. Instead of the water I saw a bright white light. This was it I though. I'm going to die trapped underwater my my ponytail. At the time I failed to know how ironic that statement would become.
I let my eyelids drift further closed as the light got brighter. I saw my dad's face. It didn't register to me at the time that I had never met my dad before and thus couldn't have know that it was him. Somehow I knew that it was him though. It just felt right. Even his image was beginning to fade when he made a movement to touch both sides of my head. The strange thing was that I felt it like he was actually there. I let my head tilt backwards and my eyes fully close when I felt a surge of energy.
The next thing I knew I was shooting out of the pond like a bottle rocket. I screamed as I flew through the the air and landed next to Mira who was staring at me with wide eyes.
"What just happened!" she exclaimed.
"I don't know!" I freaked, "My ponytail got caught in the water and I thought I was a goner. Next thing I know I'm flying through the air!"
"What?" Mira asked. "Oh god! I thought of were just trying to get me back in the water! I didn't know that you were actually drowning!"
"Well I was!" I exclaimed.
"But how did you do that?" she asked.
"Do what? Drown?" I asked.
"No!" she said. "There was like a stream of water that was pushing you up into the air! I've never seen anything like it!"
"I don't know," I told her honestly. "I just remember thinking that I was dead and then I saw my dad-"
"You saw your dad?" she asked. "But you've never met your dad and your mom refuses to keep pictures of him around the house. How did you know that it was him?"
"I have no idea," I said. "I just did."
"Ok, weird dad telepathy aside," she said. "How did you get your hair unstuck?"
"My dad, he pressed his hands to my temples and all of a sudden I was flying!" I told her. I punctuated that last phrase by exasperatingly throwing up my hand which turned out to only make things worse because all of a sudden a stream of water shot out of both hands. Mira screamed. Then I screamed. Then we both screamed.
"What was that!" Mira yelled.
"I have no idea!" I squeaked back.
"Water just shot out of your hands!" Mira yelled.
"Well I know that," I told her. "But how on earth did I do that?"
"Maybe we're just seeing things," Mira said.
"Yeah, after all I did almost drown and you're well, you," I said.
"Yeah. Yeah," she said. "Wait, hey!"
"Let's just go back to my house and calm down," I told her. She nodded and we slowly stood up. I grabbed my sketchbook and colored pencils and put them in my bag while Mira grabbed her jacket. Then I heard her scream again. I quickly spun around and saw her topple backwards into the water. Again. I ran forwards to grab her hand but instead the water around her moved away so that she was laying on a day patch of ground. I was to stunned to move so I stood there with my arm held out in front of me. Mira was looking up at me fearfully and she shakily stood up and turned to look at the water.
"Brook?" Mira asked.
"Yeah?" I responded, my voice small.
"You can control water," she said with wonder.
"I know," I said back, my voice barely a whisper. I wasn't sure whether to scream or faint.
I dropped my hand and the water returned to its original position. I turned to look at Mira. She stared right back at me. Then we screamed again and ran back down the path the led to my house. We missed many things in our panic. We missed my art bag which still lay on the ground where I left it. We missed Mira's army jacket which was half submerged in the water where Mira dropped it and we also missed the girl watching us from behind a tree.